Laptops

Get real!

4-Jun-03. The technology industry is fond of television ads promoting the concept of mobile computing. The ads show people in all sorts of places merrily computing on their laptops. Intel is getting into the act with their ads for Centrino™ chips that provide built-in wireless capability.

I say, "Get real!"

They're called laptops but if you've ever tried to use one on your lap, as I am doing while writing this article, you need an asbestos apron to protect your lap. These things give off a lot of heat.

Take a real laptop outdoors, why don't you? You can't see the screen unless you're in deep shade. And if you're in sun, the screen cooks. Look carefully at the screens in those ads: black.

Windows® — the pervasive operating system — is really only efficient if you have a good pointing device. That is, a mouse. The little pencil eraser thingy and the touch-pad thingy are very poor substitutes. And of course, we've forgotten most of the keyboard shortcuts that we used to know before Windows® came along. Ctrl-S for save, Ctrl-P for print, then what?